Thursday, May 31

drive-by gumming and other stories

Two weeks ago, I promised to tell you what a kid said when he leaned out of a car window and threw his gum at me, then I forgot all about it. I guess that's what you get when all you have is talent around here.

Thanks to a faithful (and astute) reader, that promise will now be kept...

I was out walking in my neighborhood, looking for a copy shop. What I found instead was an empty building with a copy shop sign. And as I was turning away from the door, a car drove by and a young man leaned out one of the back windows and yelled, "I'm going to throw my gum at you!" And then he did.

And that's it. Fortunately, the car was too far from me for the airborne gum to land anywhere close to me. I stood there for a moment, wondering if I had missed something. Realizing no enlightenment was going to come, I walked away. But I had so many questions. Primarily: Why did he throw his gum at me? Why did he let me know that was what he was going to do? Was he acting alone, or were there accomplices? Was there some deeper philosophical significance? How long had he been chewing the gum?

I have yet to come to any satisfying conclusions. But if you ever find yourself the target of a drive by Trident-ing, know that you are not alone.

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Little Gen and I had coffee with our mom-away-from-mom this week. As is common among friends catching up, Lori asked what I've been up to lately. Why do I always feel pressure to have something new and exciting to say when someone asks me this question?

Truthfully, I still feel like my life is in kind of a holding pattern. But it's not a bad pattern. I'm growing tomatoes and squash and herbs in my garden of variously shaped pots. And I'm hiding from the afternoon sun as much as possible, in my apartment, under a fan.

I've been to three baseball games in the last two weeks, which is more than I've been to in probably ten years. I'm starting to feel like a regular at the park. And let me tell you, gone are the days when you could get peanuts for a couple bucks. Now you're looking at five bucks for a bag of cotton candy, which you may note, is mostly air. 

In the evenings, I like to have a beer, maybe on the front stoop with Mountain Guy. Yes, we tried to break up, but it didn't exactly take. Mostly it intensified our attraction. We just look way to good together. Plus, we kind of enjoy each others' company.

The day after school let out for the summer, we took his girls to the butterfly exhibit at the botanical gardens. The enclosed canopy has recently come to life with transformation. We couldn't have been inside for more than five minutes before MG reached out his hand and a butterfly landed on it. Afterward, we celebrated new beginnings with a peanut butter and jelly picnic on the lawn.

New beginnings of what, you ask? I doubt the butterflies worry about that.

OneArmGirl